


Patience Is a Virtue

by LeToastBurnt



Category: Naruto
Genre: Basically, Christmas gift that has literally no relation to christmas whatsoever, Gen, fluff?, i think, implied MadaTobi, they're Naruto's dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28327689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeToastBurnt/pseuds/LeToastBurnt
Summary: “I’d watch where I was going if I were you.” Naruto says mildly, so damn nonchalantly with a smirk that perfectly resembled Tobirama’s own.“Patience,” Naruto starts, and Madara grits his teeth because he knows exactly where this is going, having witnessed and even said it before, “Is a virtue.”“And it shall reward you.” Naruto finishes reciting dutifully. Madara can picture in perfect detail the first time Tobirama had told their son those exact same words.
Relationships: Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Madara, Senju Tobirama & Uzumaki Naruto, Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
Comments: 6
Kudos: 143





	Patience Is a Virtue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [He Can Be Ours](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21456982) by [raendown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown). 



> Merry Christmas!
> 
> Think of this like a christmas gift even though literally nothing remotely related to christmas is mentioned in this.
> 
> I was technically supposed to post a decisions chapter but I am a serious procrastinator so you guys will probably get that about tomorrow night.

Naruto huffed out a sigh, blowing away the right-swept blond fringe that was kept back by his hitai-ate. Looking up, he was met with the familiar tree canopy. 

“What’s taking so long?” He muttered, scanning the air.

His father who was leaning on a nearby tree and sharpening a kunai sent him an exasperated glance.

“Maybe if you had more _patience._ ” 

“I have plenty of patience!” He muttered, knowing better then to snap.

Hearing the familiar call of a harpy eagle. He let out a sharp whistle in response and held out his arm which was encased within a thick glove. 

His summon dived down and slowed his descent before perching on Naruto’s arm.

He smoothed down some of the silver feathers and met his summons eyes. 

“Mizuki, got anything for me?” 

“Oh you’ll love this.” The bird drawled, if that was possible, and began to preen.

Huffing quietly he _patiently_ waited for the eagle to finish it’s job

“I considered retracting the contract.” 

Naruto froze before his eyes widened and he screeched.

“You _what!?”_

His father was now listening in, slightly amused and slightly interested. 

“Calm down, I’m still here aren’t I?”

“I doubt your loyalty.” The blond muttered before staring expectantly at the eagle. “Well? What happened?”

“That stupid tree of a human almost killed me!” Mizuki huffed angrily, feathers ruffling.

“Anija?” “Uncle Hashi?” Could be heard from father and son, respectively.

“What’d he do?”

“He tried to capture me with his mokuton!”

“Last time I checked that’s not trying to kill someone.”

Mizuki’s neck feathers bristled, “I was in flight! He almost hit me!”

“We are playing war games.” Tobirama points out logically from where he had settled on the ground.

“Where is Keiko when I need her?” Naruto muttered before speaking up, “You were only supposed to spy on them to begin with. How did you get caught?”

The bird lifted his wings in the impression of a shrug. Releasing a long breath Naruto once more stared up at the tree canopy.

“Where’s Keiko?”

“Huh?”

“I summoned Keiko, not you.”

“How rude. I just wanted to fill in.” 

“Yeah well, you’ve had your fun.”

Naruto poked the bird and Mizuki disappeared in a puff a smoke.

He sent a miserable glance at his father.

“Any chance the twins want to help out?”

Tobirama smirks, and shakes his head. 

Sighing, Naruto bites his finger and places the palm of his right hand on his left arm where the glove resided. The summoning ink curled around his arm and a puff of smoke appeared. When it cleared it showed another harpy eagle. This time with black feathers.

“Keiko,”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

The bird takes off silently, leaving only a black feather to show she was even there to start with.

Naruto pouted and sat down next to the albino before laying down and placing his head on Tobirama’s lap.

“They’ll never expect us to just sit still.” He grins up at the inquiring red eyes.

Tobirama hums thoughtfully.

“Patience,” Naruto smirked, mimicking what his father had told him many times, “Is a virtue.”

Tobirama rolled his eyes but there was a small smile playing on his lips. 

“Madara will be quite angry when he realises we’ve been in the same spot.” The Senju commented, fingers idly carding through Naruto’s hair. 

“We could always drown him?”

“I was unaware you were so willing to drown your father. Should I fear for my life?” Tobirama snarks and Naruto huffs.

The older Senju adopted a thoughtful look. “Madara probably won’t use Katon as there is a great risk of burning down the forest.”

“But tou-san doesn’t care if the forest burns down.”

“But he has Hashirama on his team.”

“Oh yeah.”

“Besides you’re here.” 

Naruto pouts harder, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” Tobirama tapped the boys temple, “that Madara won’t risk burning down the forest while you’re in it.”

“I can take care of myself!”

Tobirama simply shrugged, “Try telling Madara that.”

“I have!”

Kaede sighs and scoots further onto Tobirama.

“This is an invasion of privacy.” The latter informed the former.

“You didn’t mind when I was five.”

“You were five.”

Despite the complaints Naruto is well aware that his father doesn’t truly mind, This in mind, he scoots further up until his head resides underneath the suiton users chin.

Tobirama sighs put uponly but obliging props his chin up on his child's head.

“We should start moving soon.” he murmurs after a few minutes of peaceful idleness. Naruto hums in acknowledgement but doesn’t move to get up.

With a sigh Tobirama pushes the blond of his person and stands up. Naruto grumbles and stands up with a scowl.

“What’s our plan?”

* * *

Madara looks up as he hears the sharp whistle belonging to his son. 

It carries through the forest and he soon hears the shrill cry in response from Naruto’s summon. The whistle and the bird call goes both ways as far as he knows. Naruto whistles when he wants the bird to return and the bird calls back. The bird calls when they’ve completed their assignment and Naruto whistles when it’s safe for the bird to return. He knows Naruto has quieter ways to call his bird back to him and it arouses suspicion that the blond chose to whistle that loud. 

He catches a glimpse of dark feathers through the thick branches of his rival's forest before they disappear. Madara scowls, they’ve been searching for Tobirama and Naruto for the better part of the day and he’s a little surprised he hasn’t burnt down Hashirama’s forest by now.

“The sun will be set soon.” Hashirama himself notes, a frown marring his features.

“I’m sure my husband will be fine.”

Hashirama raises a brow, “And Naruto?”

Madara’s response is another scowl.

“Let’s hurry up and finish this already.” He growls.

“He’s already a jonin,” His friend attempted to assure him, “I’m sure he’s doing just fine.”

Madara sent a wary glance in the direction he had spotted the harpy eagle. “Tokubetsu. And Naruto always manages to get him in some kind of trouble.”

That wasn’t to say Madara wasn’t scared half out of his mind every time Naruto was even remotely in danger. Because he was. He was overprotective and he knew it. His overprotective tendencies made Tobirama roll his eyes more often then not. 

It wasn’t _his_ fault he was the responsible one.

And then Naruto's bird is back in sight.

The eagle flies over their heads in lazy circles, Madara watches it distrustfully.

He didn’t have anything against eagles. He simply would’ve preferred it if Naruto had falcon summons. That aside, it didn’t make sense for the eagle to be marking them. Tobirama had an incredible sensory range and sensing them must’ve been childs play for the other man.

Hashirama seems to be thinking along the same lines because while the Senju’s chakra is gathering, it’s still passive. 

“The eagle came from that direction.” Hashirama points in the general direction summon had appeared from.

He nods and they set off.

Halfway through the trek Madara suddenly stops.

“We should be careful.”

“Well yeah-”

“No I mean, we should watch where we’re stepping.”

Madara can see the moment realization dawns upon his friend.

Naruto was an infiltration specialist. Something Madara had vehemently been against when he had learned what his son wanted to specialize in. Like most infiltration specialists, Naruto was a natural at traps; that wasn’t even the worst part. 

When he was about 7, Naruto had seen one of Tobirama’s seals and had immediately demanded to be taught. Tobirama had taught the blond with an unholy amount of glee.

That being said, the very ground they were walking on was more then likely littered with seals and traps. 

Naruto was often considered a prodigy having graduated from the academy early with seals that could bring some Uzumaki’s to their knees and the uncanny ability to sneak up on just about anyone. Madara blamed Tobirama’s cousin, Kaede for both parts but the latter more so.

Groaning, Madara scrubbed a hand against his face.

“Try growing trees around some spots.” He ordered.

Hashirama obliged and began to grow a small sapling about 10 feets away.

It exploded.

Madara watched as the small sapling began to bulge before exploding, what was left of the tree setting on fire.

“D’you like?”

Madara and Hashirama swiveled around to see Naruto crouching on a tree branch managing to stay perfectly balanced even with his large summon perched on his shoulder, talons digging into his shoulder in what could only be a painful manner.

Madara warily watched his son, noting the excited gleam in his eye.

“It a new seal,” Naruto commented conversationally, as though they weren’t in the middle of a war game on opposing teams, “It took forever to make, not mention how hard it was to implement the flames.” Then Naruto pouted. “And I can’t even use it on missions. Too loud.”

Madara would’ve been more concerned for his child's mental health if he hadn’t known Tobirama for 15 years. Not to mention himself

Abruptly Naruto throws a stick at the floor two feet away. The stick explodes.

“I’d watch where I was going if I were you.” Naruto says mildly, so _damn_ nonchalantly with a smirk that perfectly resembled Tobirama’s own.

“Patience,” Naruto starts, and Madara grits his teeth because he knows exactly where this is going, having witnessed and even said it before, “Is a virtue.”

“And it shall reward you.” Naruto finishes reciting dutifully. Madara can picture in perfect detail the first time Tobirama had told their son those exact same words. Naruto had been planning some kind of seal and Tobirama had offered to help. Madara himself idly reading a book on the other side of the kotatsu. Naruto had gotten impatient over something or other and Tobirama had crouched in front of the boy with a half smile half smirk, saying the very words.

It had become something of an inside joke.

Then Naruto disappears in a puff of smoke, Naruto’s quiet laughter still ringing in the air and his eagle adapting to the sudden change before returning to circling overhead. Apparently they had been listening to a shadow clone.

Silently cursing his husband's name and Kaede's ten times more, Madara activated his sharingan. 

It didn't do much to be completely honest. Madara, someone well-versed in traps himself, had taught Naruto how to hide traps from even the sharingan. He was regretting it now.

Hashirama would probably be hesitant to grow any more trees so it was up to him to get them out of here alive.

Red eyes flickered to and fro, noting each and every visible trap while Hashirama tried to talk to the trees and figure out where Tobirama and Naruto were.

Finally finished scoping out a path, Madara grabbed Hashirama by the arm and shoved him in front, pushing him in the direction to not get blown up. He did this partly because he didn’t trust the man to not stumble behind Madara and partly because Madara didn’t feel like getting blown up and if Madara got blown up then Hashirama would consequently get blown up.

And then Naruto’s eagle dove.

Madara really should’ve known better then to think the stupid eagle would just leave them alone. Hashirama screeched as the black bird plummeted towards him and leaped out of the way. The harpy eagle immediately pulled to a stop.

Hashirama didn’t _exactly_ get blown up.

More like both the tree and himself got teleported to the middle of a gigantic seal in front of the Naka river. Tobirama sat on a tree branch with the tree supporting his back as he cleaned out his nails with a kunai. 

Naruto was excitedly flitting about the seal with the Naka occasionally speeding up. 

Tobirama looked up from his hand and stared at them.

“Naruto wanted to drown you.” The albino stated conversationally instead of saying hello like a normal person. “I considered it. Actually still am.”

Naruto released a piercing whistle and the distant cry of that thrice-damned eagle can be heard in response.

Hashirama looks like he wants to flail (much like Madara) but just like Madara, he was incapable of moving. So Madara, the more diplomatic of the two (even if that wasn’t saying much), spoke.

“Why haven’t we exploded?” 

Naruto’s eyes lit up the same way his shadow clone's eyes had when talking about the exploding seal.

“That was the only exploding seal!”

“What.”

“Well,” Naruto grinned, “We obviously needed a way to get you into this seal,” Naruto gesticulated at the seal they were stuck in, “So I had Keiko go over to my shadow clone when you guys were near the seal and kaboom! When you guys started moving Keiko would scare you into a seal!”

Madara has often thought that his son would do better in the explosion corps or perhaps the sealing corps. 

His son tilted his head to the side with a thoughtful expression on his face, “Well actually… There might’ve been a _few_ explosion seals in there…”

Then Hashirama squawks and Madara sees Naruto’s harpy eagle perched on the idiot's head, claws digging into the man's scalp. 

“There was a rather good chance you two could’ve been killed.” Tobirama added unhelpfully from his spot up in the tree. 

And then Tobirama’s at his neck with a kunai and Naruto at Hashirama’s, identical smirks playing on their lips.

“We win.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have to say the founder's era is my favorite era to write in.
> 
> Not only am I in love with literally every character from that time but I don’t have to remember any complicated timeline shit. 
> 
> In case you are wondering, baby Nart somehow managed to blast himself into the past and Tobi and Madara adopted him bc well, baby Nart.
> 
> I realize as I re-read this that Kurama and/or his chakra isn’t actually mentioned. The reason for that being whatever baby Nart did to end up in the past resulted in Kurama’s chakra being depleted. Since he is a literal chakra being he is technically dead. Some of Kurama’s chakra stayed with Naruto though so he has considerably more chakra then the normal Uzumaki.
> 
> I haven't actually really edited this or anything so I'll probably come back in a day or so to clean it up a little.
> 
> Hope you guys had a great holiday!


End file.
